First, I want to congratulate @apple for introducing a $1000 phone with features like wireless charging and an edge-to-edge screen that my last two or three android phones have already had. Â Perhaps the most, or only, interesting new feature is the facial recognition. Â Apple is abandoning fingerprint scanning in favor of facial recognition to unlock the phone.

I mention the law enforcement angle in the title because it has been a bone of contention how far law enforcement can go to make someone unlock their phone. Â Clearly, when unlocking was PIN only, one only had to declare they forgot and no one could really disprove that. Â With fingerprint scanning, it has been a point that is still in the courts (I believe) as to whether LE can force someone to unlock the phone with their finger. Â Now, however, all they will have to do is hold the phone up to the suspect's face. Â This less invasive unlocking technique is probably an everyday hassle reduction, but will make the phone incrementally less secure from snooping.

Morbid postscript: Â I wonder if this works on a corpse? Â Is there a heat sensor of some sort, or are the kids going to be saying "let's get the eyes on dad's body open so we can get his phone unlocked".